Town News Briefing

SOUTHINGTON -- A collision reportedly involving a car traveling the wrong way on I-84 caused a westbound section of the highway to be closed down Thursday night, backing up traffic for miles.

The accident took place about 8:15 p.m. near the Queen Street exit, state police said late Thursday.

One person was reportedly flown by medical helicopter to Hartford Hospital.

Police did not provide further details.

BRISTOL

Historical Society Plans

Tag Sale This Weekend

BRISTOL -- The Bristol Historical Society will hold its annual tag sale fundraiser this weekend to benefit its building fund.

The sale will be held in the first floor of its 98 Summer St. facility.

``Fundraisers like this are a ton of work,'' Frank Johnson, president of the society, said in a statement. ``But the upside of it is that it attracts people to the building to see what we are doing. Last year we realized several new members from the tag sale and the same thing happened at the Flood of 1955 exhibit."

The organization will also sell items from the flood exhibit including commemorative flood posters.

The sale runs today and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A half-price bag sale will be held Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Admission is free and parking is available behind the building or on Center Street. For details call 860-583-6309.

BRISTOL

City GOP Opens

Headquarters

BRISTOL -- The Bristol Republicans will hold a grand opening of their headquarters at 10 a.m. Saturday at 65 North Main St., above Erica's Restaurant.

For more information, call 860-540-1004.

NEW BRITAIN

Candidate Offers

Haircut And Talk

NEW BRITAIN -- In an effort to reach out to voters and discuss the city's tax rates and spending priorities for the city, Miguel Nieves, Green Party candidate for mayor, is offering free haircuts to interested city taxpayers.

On Oct. 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a local barber will offer his services free at Nieves' campaign headquarters at 38 West Main St.

``The barber shop is the place where local people talk about local politics and taxes, so we are doing this just for one day and we hope people will discuss what they think our taxes should be spent on,'' Nieves said in a prepared statement. Nieves described his campaign as a ``very grass roots'' effort trying to reach people with new ideas and approaches.

``It's getting harder and harder for taxpayers to pay their local taxes, so maybe a free haircut will help just a little,'' he said.

PLAINVILLE

Traffic Campaign

Nabs 630 Motorists

PLAINVILLE -- The police department has announced the end of its ``Stop Running Red Light Campaign,'' after stopping 630 motorists for failing to obey traffic signals.

The state-funded program was conducted in 14 days and used 12 patrol officers, each working four-hour shifts. The goal was to raise public awareness that running red lights will not be tolerated, police said.

Only ``blatant violators'' were ticketed, at a cost of $114 for each violation.

HARTFORD

Student Suffers Injury

At Weaver High School

A 15-year-old student at Weaver High School in Hartford suffered minor injuries Thursday when a teammate stabbed his leg during an argument, police and school officials said.

Jeffrey Robinson, 17, was charged with second-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor. Police did not disclose his bail or court date.

The two boys, both members of the boys' soccer team, were preparing for practice shortly after 3 p.m., when teasing turned into a dispute and one of them drew a knife and poked the other in the left leg, police and school officials said.

The 15-year-old was treated at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and released.

The incident occurred in a stairwell of the school as the two teenagers headed outside for practice, school district spokesman Terry D'Italia said. The injured teenager went back inside and wrapped the wound, but it kept bleeding and he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

He said Robinson did not seem to realize the seriousness of the wound and police were interviewing him. Police said the victim appeared to repeatedly taunt Robinson, resulting in the assault.

``These are two non-problematic kids, two good kids, who started fooling around'' before the incident escalated, D'Italia said. ``How this boy got a knife is beyond me.''

Weaver High officials use hand-held wands to randomly check students every morning on alternate days, but Thursday was not one of those days, he said.

Police recovered the knife, which had a 2-inch blade. It had not been determined later Thursday what discipline the student might face in school. The district's policy on automatically expelling students in possession of weapons specifies knives with blades of at least 4 inches.

HARTFORD

Bicycle Accident

Injures Teenager

A city teenager was injured when he crashed while trying to ride his bicycle down 50 feet of concrete steps outside Bulkeley High School, police said Thursday.